Manners Count (to the Beat)
by HPOwlLover24
Summary: I don't normally go to clubs, but I had to experience this at least once, right? And no gorgeous grump was going to get me down.


The club was booming with life, lights were flashing and music was pounding and I could practically feel the bass beating through my heart. It was insane and I had no idea why I had said I would come. This wasn't my scene, I never came to clubs to dance or drink, I never did any of that.

I was known around the office as the Freckled Angel, and, to be honest, I could see why. I never did anything that wasn't for work or my family or my friends. I just didn't see the need, I didn't care so much about pleasing myself as helping others.

So when Armin and Eren somehow convinced me to come to the club with them that night (_Come on Marco! It'll be fun. A guy's night out. We don't get to see you otherwise!_) I must have been possessed by an entity or something.

Though it did look quite fun.

Armin forced me to get dressed into something nice and "party club" appropriate. I honestly had no idea what that was, so I just let him pick out what he thought would be best on me for this particular occasion. Eventually he settled on jeans and a white button up that he had me roll up my forearms.

I also had to continuously turn down their efforts to hook me up with some guy they both knew. He apparently had just gone through a bad break up with Mikasa, Eren's step-sister, and was going to be attending only for Eren and Armin to cheer him up.

"The guy's a hot head, but he'll totally dig you," Eren was saying, Armin was beside him nodding in agreement.

I grinned, "Thanks, but no thanks." I kept trying to tell them that I wasn't interested, but they insisted.

Despite that, I was going to try to enjoy tonight. I was out with friends and I had never truly partied before.

We followed Armin to the booth in the back where a man with a strange two-toned hair style was sitting.

Okay, truthfully, honest to God, the guy was attractive. A definite eleven out of ten. His amber eyes were bright and downcast, a frown set on his features, probably because of the break up, and he was constantly running his hand through his hair.

Did I mention I had a thing for undercuts?

I tried to not stare at the tight, white t-shirt or leather jacket he was wearing. No, okay, I was determined to not flirt. The guy just got out of a relationship, he didn't need anyone coming onto him. He needed a friend.

"Hey, fuck face."

Which apparently Eren was.

The guy looked up, his amber eyes flashing for a second, before a smirk played across his features. He got up and clasped hands with Eren before bringing him in for a hug.

Okay, so Eren was.

He did the same to Armin whilst I stood off to the side awkwardly. "So, feeling better?" Armin asked him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

The guy shrugged, his smirk never falling from his face, but his eyes darkening slightly. "I'll be fine. It was a short relationship anyways, right?"

Armin nodded, "Definitely, you guys went on, what? Three dates."

"Yeah, after pinning after her for three years," Eren murmured.

Armin elbowed Eren in the stomach. "Anyways," he said forcefully, "we have someone we want you to meet. Marco this is Jean. Jean, Marco."

I waved slightly, offering my hand to him with a small smile on my face. The man, Jean, glanced at my face, down at my hand and then back up to my face. "The fuck Eren?" He looked over to the green-eyed boy, completely ignoring my hand. Well, okay.

I withdrew as Eren rose an eyebrow, "What?"

Jean jerked his head in my direction and I rose my own brow, "I did not come to get fucking set up with Freckles here."

I nearly did a double take. The heck was this guys problem? I am standing right here.

I took a step forward, standing in front of Jean with a forceful smile on my face, nearly baring my teeth. I could deal with about anything, I had a near unlimited supply of patience, but I could not handle rudeness, from anyone to anyone.

I grabbed his hand and shook it harshly. The guy turned back to me, his eyes wide with shock at how close I was and what I was doing. I gave him my best parent-to-crying-child-smile and said forcefully, "Nice to meet you, too, Jean. I'm Marco, not Freckles."

I let go of him, looking over to Armin, "Shall we get some drinks to loosen us up a bit? I feel like dancing." I turned away from a shell-shocked Jean and a hysterical Eren, and made my way to the bar, an amused Armin in my wake.

We ordered a few drinks, telling the barman to keep it going for us for a couple of rounds, and then I looked over at Armin, who was doing his weird thing of smirking at his hands and avoiding my gaze.

I sighed, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to be so mean to him."

Armin waved his hand at my comment, "Nah, don't be. He needed to get kicked off his high horse, he's always doing that now because of Mikasa dumping him. We've been trying to cheer him up for days…"

I nodded, deciding against saying anything. I mean, the guy was entitled to feel bad but if he was doing this and being a burden on his friends…

I shook my head and looked at the barman who was putting our shots and drinks on a server's plate, telling us that he'll send another round over to us.

Armin led the way through the slowly building crowd as I carried the drinks back to our table. I decided against sitting beside Jean, slightly because I was embarrassed but more so still upset about his abrupt impolite manner, in the booth and sat down quickly beside Eren, placing the drinks in the middle and grabbed mine quickly. We downed our shots and then began drinking our beer.

The liquor was slowly moving it's way through my system, and I could feel, as I chugged down my beer, that I was becoming unwound very quickly. I was never one to hold my alcohol well, so this was no surprise to me.

I tried to ignore the fact that I could feel a pair of amber eyes on me.

The next round was quick to follow and, before I knew it, I had three shots and already downed my beer.

I laughed at something Armin was telling us about some people from his office, something about engineers being unable to fix a printer jam, when I heard a favorite song of mine come on.

_"__When Rome's in ruins, we are the lions_

_Free of the coliseums."_

I jumped up, dragging Eren by the arm to the dance floor with me as _Young Volcanoes _began to fill the room. Part of me recognized that this wasn't much of a club song, but the part, rather large one too, that loved this song didn't care.

I started jumping around, not caring that I wasn't really dancing, I was too drunk to notice. I swayed to the beat, Eren and I belting the lyrics as we laughed and enjoyed the song. I don't know if the other two joined us, but I wasn't going to worry about it at the moment.

The song ended too soon for my taste, but I was so hyper and pumped that I continued dancing, even when Eren went to sit down a few songs later. I didn't have a care in the world, and I couldn't but think through my drunken stupor that I should be going to clubs more often to let loose every now and then.

I continued to move my hips, laughing with some random people beside me, as the songs continued on. Before I could realize what was happening, Jean was beside me, dancing with me.

Well, he was dancing beside me. Did that count as dancing with me?

I looked over at him with a cheeky smile and he smirked back before dorkily bumping my hip with his. I laughed and retaliated, bumping my other hip with his.

He laughed, his amber eyes shinning with merriment, and I couldn't help but think that his eyes were very pretty when they were shinning like that.

I ended up dancing with Jean the rest of the night, both of us forgetting about our drinks and the other two that were with us. Armin and Eren joined us every now and then, but mostly left us alone to do our own thing. Other people also joined in with us often, I guess we just seemed like we were having a grand old time because we met so many new people.

Armin finally came over to tell us that he and Eren were leaving and telling us to get home safe and all that. I hugged him, thanking him for forcing me to come and then waved as he tugged a sick looking Eren through the crowd of dancers.

After a few more songs, Jean and I finally sat down at the bar, asking for some water. I gulped mine down greedily, hoping that my after-alcohol symptoms wouldn't start soon. Maybe I should go get some food…

"Do ya wanna grab a bite to eat?"

I looked over at Jean who was staring back at me, the water bottle hanging loosely between his fingers. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder and spoke, "I know a good burger joint around the way, the huge ass burger buns may help soak up the alcohol."

I rose an eyebrow at him.

He caught my accusation without me having to voice it. His hand scratched the back of his neck, his face tinting a light red. "Sorry about that Fre- Marco. I shouldn't have been such a dick." He looked up at me with those pretty, twinkling amber eyes, "I'll buy?"

I grinned, nodding at his words, "You most definitely will." I jumped up, bumping my hip with his playfully. "Come on, ya grump. I'm starving!"

Jean smiled widely and lead the way out of the club.

* * *

**So, I've had a bit of a writer's block and I've been a bit sad about my wrist. It really upsets me that I can't write as much as I used to. So I've been slowly easing out words for Acceptance and Flying, but it's just upsetting. My friends have been amazing and I got this idea. I hoped you enjoyed it. I don't know why I love the idea of passive aggressive Marco, but I do. Haha. Anyways, slowly, but surely, I shall have my other fics updated. I just gotta find the time to write them...especially with this damn wrist. Almost done with some new chapters. Haha, I hope you are all doing amazingly well, if you wanna talk, I have a tumblr (hpowlover24). I also wanna let you know, don't expect anything this weekend...sorry but I'm turning 20! My family and friends are on my butt about it all.**


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